The thing that strikes me about user experience is that we have to put users at the core of what we designed, and how hard it is to do that. There are many a times when we almost fell into the trap of designing what is most comfortable for ourselves, only to get pulled back to reality by test users comments and suggestions. The thing is, it is easy to assume some things when you are in the process of coding/designing and realise that hey there is something that we did not cover during the interviews and user researches. I guess the solution will be to keep testing the product with different target users and make sure that in the end, the product is for them and not for us. Constant trial and error, constant testing and interviews and redesigning are very essential. A tedious process that may not guarantee to work 100% but nonetheless essential. There isn't such a thing as a final final product, every product got to constantly reinvent itself to keep up with the ever changing world. Sometimes, it is also easier to think that our product is the best. After all we have spent a lot of hard work on it. A lot of people get offended when people pointed out their flaws, thus it is essential to keep an open mind to suggestions and not dismiss them. We must alway remember the ones using the product is them and not us.
User experience is supposedly different from usability, user experience is usability plus something much more. The something much more is so hard to grasp. In a way, I guess what differ user experience from usability, where all we have to make sure is that everything is working perfectly fine and that users are comfortable about using the whole interface, is the total feel they will get out of the product. Aesthetic quality is one important factor, as I have learnt. Visceral design, behavioral design, reflective design, different type of designs will give rise to different impacts. Usability is also important, because if a user cant get the interface to work his way, the experience will be very bad no matter how nice it looks on first sight. But if the user interface runs smooth, looks aesthetically pleasing, thats already half way to a positive experience. The hard part is to make sure they can get the 'wow' experience, and it is hard to do that because every user likes and dislikes different things. It is lucky that our target users are children and easily pleased. The turning faces navigation buttons is enough to garner a positive surprise reaction "huh wa the face can turn one !!" and you realise that user experience can be something so simple, yet so hard to grasp.
User researches is a very important part of user experience. Interviews, background researches, focus groups, surveys, some of the ways we do user researches. Not only these, we have really got to know our users, by talking to them and knowing them, just to create the whole experience for them. Yet how well can we know a person through interviews and a few questions? I guess better than not knowing our users and assuming based on stereotypes. Personas, sociological pleasures, physiological pleasures, psychological pleasures, ideological pleasures, needs, wants, appreciations, tough to break down a person in these categories but we can never get away from these.
User experience is all about user user and user, but we must also take note to convey the corporate experience to user, so that when user use the product, they will relate it to the comapany. It must be in line with the corporate vision. I guess one area of improvement for us will be to really talk to the company. We have talked to Kumon tutors, to Kumon students but not really Kumon. We tried to design the product as best as we could to adhere to the corporate vision found in Kumon website, however, giving the product to the company management to try may provide us better ideas. Striking a balance between what company wants and what users want is also important. After all we are in a profit making society.
Another thing is that technical skills are also rather essential to make the total experience. Junhao was the only one who knows how to code flash, so everything was coded painstakingly by him and I really appreciate it. However, there are some ideas we have that never materialize due to both time and technical limitations. Would have really hope to see the whole product work! Oh those would have, could have will really make a better experience. I should start to learn flash.
One of the background images that we used. Very nice right? Thanks to Jialin!
And also to thanks the test users for giving us many valuable comments. Some of the little one who are not so shy of the camera:
Don't you love their smile?
On enlightenment, I guess I haven't reach that state yet =P
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